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Linux Mint 10 Release Candidate arrives

The Linux Mint 10 RC desktop.
The Linux Mint development team have announced a release candidate for what will become version 10 of their Linux Mint operating system, code named "Julia". Linux Mint aims to be user friendly and to provide a more complete out-of-the-box experience by including support for DVD playback, Java, plug-ins and various media codecs. It is currently the third most popular distribution on DistroWatch.com behind Ubuntu and Fedora.

Linux Mint 10 is based on Ubuntu 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat" and features version 2.6.35 of the Linux kernel, X.org 7.5 and the 2.32 GNOME desktop environment. The latest version allows users to install codecs and upgrade to the DVD edition from the welcome screen and has a new look and feel, which includes a new light theme and dark background.

The Linux Mint menu has received several updates as well, including GTK themes and bookmarks support, better search functionality and the ability to highlight newly installed applications, making them easier to find. Other changes include Software Manager improvements and various Update and Upload Manager updates.

The developers note that the release is aimed at developers and beta-testers and use in production environments or for mission critical systems is not advised. Users testing the release are encouraged to provide feedback and report any bugs that they encounter.

Further information about the release candidate can be found in the release notes and on the What's new in Linux Mint 10 page. Linux Mint 10 RC is available to download for 32 and 64-bit systems from the project's site. The latest stable release of Linux Mint is version 9, based on Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, from mid-May of this year.